“Boston is one of several major cities that interest us,” Page told the Phoenix. “We like the Boston market. It’s dynamic.” Page added that he is “aware that the Herald American is for sale,” but claimed that no negotiations were under way between Murdoch and Hearst. And what about a successor tabloid? “We’ve talked to several printers in the Boston area, but we’ve signed no contracts with any of them,” Page said.

Included among those printing possibilities Page was exploring this summer were the Middlesex News in Framingham and the Beverly-Peabody Times on the North Shore. Indeed, James Hopson, publisher of the Middlesex News, told members of the paper’s employee-relations committee to prepare for the possibility of sharing the paper’s computers and printing facilities for a period of time until the Murdoch tabloid could find its own Boston plant; the idea, presumably, would be for the new paper to avoid the Herald’s costly union contracts and confused distribution system. Unlike the Herald (the only newspaper in the Hearst chain that has yet to be computerized), the two suburban papers have modern, photo-offset printing capabilities and United Press International photo and news services. One industry source in a position to know says Murdoch’s market research revealed that cutting costs in such ways would make it possible to turn a profit by selling 250,000 or more daily papers — meaning the new paper would not have to go head-to-head with the Globe for circulation.

Rupert Murdoch himself is reliably reported to have visited Boston several times this summer, and to be “excited by the idea.” Three weeks ago, Channel 7 reported that Murdoch was in town, dining with Herald editor Don Forst and discussing the Boston newspaper market in general terms. Forst told Herald staffers he and Murdoch are “old friends”; indeed, Murdoch once offered Forst the editorship of New York magazine. This leads to speculation that if Murdoch did choose to buy the Herald, Forst would be kept on as editor and would be able to bring aboard selected Herald editorial employees with him.

So what might a Murdoch paper in Boston be like? “It would not be an effort to re-invent the wheel, or duplicate the Globe,” said Page. Page, as it happens, is not unfamiliar with Boston journalism, having worked here as Northeast Division Chief for UPI in 1970 and ’71. Over the next few years he moved up the UPI ladder to the post of vice-president and general manager in New York, and then, in July of 1980, quit to become assistant publisher and general manager of Hearst’s San Antonio Light. After a year with Hearst, however, he and the chain had a falling out, and he jumped to the post of general manager of the competing San Antonio Express, which happens to be owned by Murdoch. Now, ironically, he’s considering moving Murdoch into another Hearst city.

“We would find a niche, a segment of the marketplace that’s not being served,” Page said. “It’s safe to say that any newspaper we produced would be a bright, colorful, aggressive tabloid-format with hard-news coverage.” That does, of course, sound a little like what Hearst has been attempting here of late. The aforesaid industry source said, “Actually, what they have in mind is similar to the Sun of London — a nipples paper. I don’t know if it would be as full of sex and crime and sensation as that, but that’s the general idea.” Another authority on Murdoch’s movements toward our town contended, however, that a Boston entry would be a good deal less racy than the New York Post — more consistent with the Hub’s presumed gentility, and very strong on our town’s reputed favorite pastimes, sports and politics.

Mr. Respectable Last Wednesday, oft-vilified media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corp. — parent company of (among others) the Times of London, the New York Post , and Fox News — will soon begin charging readers for access to all its news sites.

55. Richard Johnson A five-star general in Rupert Murdoch’s war against intelligence, this lizard-faced, pinstriped New York Post Page Six gossip-whore has done as much as any single person toward the stupidization of American society. Maybe he’s pregnant! Maybe he’s anorexic! Or maybe, just maybe, he cries himself to sleep knowing that, however good he is at his profession, he’ll never be better than a 13-year-old girl.

Through a glass darkly Predicting a Super Bowl winner doesn't make you a genius: after all, given a pool of 32 teams, one of them is bound to capture the trophy. But predicting the future for an industry that's been buffeted by new technologies and economic vicissitudes, and sometimes seems to have all the substance and staying power of sea foam? That's an accomplishment.

Murdoch mishegoss Never mind that Rupert Murdoch is shelling out better than $2 billion to buy Metromedia’s seven TV stations. Never mind that he’s then turning around and reselling Boston’s WCVB-TV, Channel 5 to the Hearst Corporation for an astounding $450 million.

High noon at the Herald Pat Purcell’s speech last Friday at a UMass Boston conference on ethnic media was auspiciously timed.

Twilight of the superheroes While riding the New York subway one warm night in 1922, Hotchkiss-schooled, Yale-educated Henry Robinson Luce conjured the name of his epoch-defining magazine after spotting an arresting advertising placard.

The Fox and the Wolff No point in looking for an explanation or asking "why" something was said or done; Murdoch has no demonstrated ability to do so.

MURDOCH MISHEGOSS | May 06, 2010 Never mind that Rupert Murdoch is shelling out better than $2 billion to buy Metromedia’s seven TV stations. Never mind that he’s then turning around and reselling Boston’s WCVB-TV, Channel 5 to the Hearst Corporation for an astounding $450 million.

FATHER FEENEY | October 09, 2009 Leonard Feeney, a defrocked Jesuit priest and pretty much of a legend in this city as a result of the “sermons” he preached on the Common every Sunday without fail for eight years, from 1949 to 1957, attracting sometimes as many as a thousand people to heckle and to laugh as much as to listen—Father Leonard Feeney is in the news again.

THE MOUTH BEHIND THE EYE | August 24, 2009 Norma Nathan, who looks for all the world like a naïve and guileless suburban homemaker (and knows it), was down on Long Wharf a couple of weeks back, snooping around. She was checking out a rumor that Ed King, his Cabinet, a group of political supporters and a crowd of lobbyists were about to embark on a lavish Harbor cruise.

MURDOCH MULLS HUB'S HERALD | October 25, 2007 This article originally appeared in the October 26, 1982 issue of the Boston Phoenix.